1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-channel head position controlling apparatus and a method of controlling position of the multi-channel head. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-channel head position controlling apparatus for use in a magnetic recording apparatus for recording via a multi-channel head, control signals, digital data signals and the like on multi-linear recording tracks of tape-like recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
When control signal, digital data signal and the like are recorded on the multi-linear recording tracks of a tape-like recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a conventional multi-channel head structure is utilized such as the one shown in FIG. 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, unit recording heads 1, 3, 5 are integrally formed into a block in which the unit recording heads 1, 3, 5 are longitudinally arrayed with a predetermined spacing between adjacent heads, thus constituting a multi-channel head 7. This multi-channel head 7 is brought into contact to a tape-like recording medium 9, and the tape-like recording medium 9 is transported. Thus, the control signal, the digital data signal and the like are recorded on a plurality of multi-linear recording tracks (in this figure and hereinafter, they are simply referred to as tracks) TR, TR1, and TR2.
The unit recording heads 1, 3, 5 are disposed so that head gaps 1a, 2a, 3a of the respective unit recording heads 1, 3, 5 are arrayed in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the tape-like recording medium 9 and the head gaps 1a, 2a, 3a are aligned with the track centers CH1, CH2, CH3 of the respective multi-linear recording tracks TR to TR2.
In FIG. 2, reference HD represents a distance between the unit recording heads 1 to 5 adjacent to each other, and TD a track width of the multi-linear recording tracks TR to TR2.